Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) is an inter-institutional research enterprise that unites the major clinical, population, and basic cancer research efforts of the Harvard medical and public health community. It was founded in 1998 through a formal agreement of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Medicine and Public Health, and the Beth Israel Deaconess, Brigham and Women's, Children's, and Massachusetts General Hospitals. By agreement, this will be the only NCI-designated Cancer Center application from these institutions. The DF/HCC links the efforts of a large cadre of cancer scientists - currently more than 800 members with NCI grants amounting to almost $100 million in total costs-in an interlocking organizational structure designed to promote research advances that are aimed at lowering the burden of cancer. In the aggregate, Center members have extensive experience and well-recognized expertise in the three major cancer research disciplines: basic, clinical, and population science. The research of the Center is carried out in 15 disease site- and discipline-based Research Programs that cross both institutional and scientific boundaries. In addition, the Center supports 17 Core Facilities that make shared resources, dedicated to enhancing scientific efficiency, available to all Center members. The primary goal of the Center is to promote collaborative interactions that will lead to new approaches to cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. For the Harvard community, its formation represents a major, new opportunity to achieve this goal.